Oct 01, 2021
Aight, so it begins. The binge.
For the most part I'll try not to repeat myself, hence this is why this will be the first and last I'll evoke this. We had a fight in the first, a fight in the second and a fight in the third. I fear like this will go the same way as another novel that shall remain nameless from SS. After a while the gung-ho wears thin on me, personal preference or not. The fighting, whilst moderately entertaining, I'll just tune out until it reaches a point where it sort of tells me something other than pew-pew, metal go brr.
There were instances of that here, most notably, the most enjoyable of them, where we find out how meticulous in planning and cunning Lev is, using some form of chemtech flare that's hot enough to melt metal at once, but apparently erupts from something so fundamentally heatproof that his hand is intact. I also enjoyed the moments of lucidity that Lev had during the fight, the short-lived realisations about the fight's status (the blows weren't enough, he would need some opportunities, he had to hide and wait).
I also enjoyed the henchman-master dynamic between Pierce and Khan. It was pretty refreshing to have a villain treat his underlings humanely and with genuine care, which I presume is less platonic (or maybe less managerial) than meets the eye. I'm hoping to see a bit more of this in the future, this 'humane' side of Khan.
As for some caveats, the transition is a bit unclear. We have a scene with Pierce and Khan, *somewhere*, then we have Lev and Astri meeting Pierce again in a parking garage in the middle of somewhere. Whilst I understood it, it makes it rather inorganic, since we aren't given a very clear temporal or spatial indication as to what went when and where.
There is also what I call 'description backpedal', wherein an element that has been there for a while is only introduced when need be. Whilst not wrong, it creates a conflicting image in my mind as a reader, namely that they were always there, but had *just* appeared now, not when he was introduced. This is evident when we learn about Pierce's suitcase only after he drops them to summon his Talos.
And in the vein of Steven Seagal's iconic: "I will snatch every motherfucker birthday", may I ask what is a 'comeback, something poignant against her logic?' Something...regretful against her logic? Like something that'd make her regret, or...
Anywho, nice segue. Beat the crap out of Pierce to wring him dry of facts.
Bubbles, out.
